I think the official rules do say--or used to say--"Costumes must not be overly theatrical" or something to that effect. But you'll need to have a majority of judges protesting to get a costume violation (just like with lyrics violation), right? Hopefully your costume isn't so bad that over half the panel wants to ding you.

And no, Kurt didn't get 6.0s in technical merit for that performance. But 5.9s are pretty darn high for something that should've gotten a mandatory deduction (even if it's once rather than twice), so I can't figure out if the judges started at 6.0 and deducted to 5.9, or if they just forgot to take the deduction. Viktor did make a small error or two in the beginning, so I can see why Kurt won. But what on earth would the judges have given Kurt if he'd landed the quad? 6.2?

Btw, speaking of Kurt and quads, does anyone know if he landed a clean quad again since the historic one in 1988? I know he made a few attempts, but the ones I found were all two-footed or tripled. (Clean = 6.0 clean--no step-out/two-foot/hand down/fall, but wonky landing or slight turn is okay).

The judges obviously didn't since they both won Olympic gold. Sochi protocols don't show costume violation for Hanyu. I can't remember how violations got scored in 6.0... but Kulik got some of the highest presentation scores of the night, iirc. But I, too, would love to see an example of a costume that got a deduction, without a feather falling off.

Random observation of the (hot summer) night: between 1992-2014, the men's gold medalists at the Olympics have always been dressed worse than the silver medallists. With the exception of (rather well-dressed, if I may say so) Plush vs. Zebra!Stephane in '06. I guess we can argue about Yagudin's outfit... but the "giant mask on the torso" thing was too literal for me.

Can anybody name a time this actually happened and I would love to see a photo

Katarina Witt got in trouble for this show girl costume at 1988 Europeans. I don't think she actually received a deduction from the judges, but for the Olympics they made her sew some more feathers to the bottom of the "skirt."

On the topic of costumes before this moves away: are women figure skaters "allowed" to wear shorts under their skirts as opposed to the v-cut underwear thing?

Opinion on Kim Yuna: did you think she still loved figure skating in the end? I have seen quotes where she says roughly that she really likes the sport, she can't do anything else, she would do it all again etc. However, after every competition past the 2010 Olympics, she seemed to just be happy to be done... she also mentioned in an interview how difficult the decision to come back was for her. BTW, I love Kim Yuna's skating. I'm a huge fan, but kinda saddened... example: http://kuank.tumblr.com/post/8677354...sands-of#notes
(Is the twisted ankle bent back true btw?!?!?!?!)

Olympic golds: It SEEMS (from a very untrained, just casually watching, don't eat me for this, eye) that Olympic gold medals are won, usually not by the most skilled skaters at that time. THERE ARE MANY EXCEPTIONS ( ex. Again in my humble opinion, Kim Yuna (but I would have accepted very muchif Mao had won), Yuzuru Hanyu, Katarina Witt, Scott Hamilton). Do you kinda notice thiz too? This isn't aimed personally at Sotbikova, although I sorta see her as just one of the many examples (minus the judging controversy).

I think Yuna did love figure skating until the end (and still does, since she says she'll continue with shows). But I don't know if she truly loved competition--she wanted Olympic gold, like everybody and their mother, but after that goal was achieved, it's understandable her motivation dipped. The injuries probably didn't help things. Few people would want to continue skating in pain after they're already achieved the ultimate prize.

I don't know what you consider the "most skilled skaters at that time." It's strange you mention Yuzuru, Witt, and Scott Hamilton. I imagine most people would consider Patrick Chan more skilled than Yuzuru at the time of Sochi (even if they don't like Chan), Witt was hardly the best technician even in her own time, and lots of people don't think Scott Hamilton even should've won Olympic gold considering Orser beat him in both the short and long programs (but Orser sucked at figures, and had the bad luck to be competing just before figures were eliminated). I don't think Olympic gold is necessarily won by the best skaters of the era, but I don't see how it's any different from other competitions. Sometimes favourites falter, and a relatively lesser known skater takes the prize. And sometimes favourites deliver and go home with Olympic (or World, or European, or GPF) gold.

Yeah, I've heard of the whole Katarina Witt situation. I think it created a costume rule because of how... revealing... the bottom area was.

She still managed to win two OGM despite her outfit being too sexy for the judges. Has there been any costume that's been dinged simply for being too bad?

IIRC, it's been referred to ever since as the "Katarina Rule" and Debi Thomas also caught flak for her unitard. Haven't seen many of those since then until Mae-Berenice wore one at the Olys this year. The rule notwithstanding & with apologies to Katarina fans, I've always wondered whether Katarina's '88 OGM was at least partly due to the judges' admiration () of her...er...assets.

This was way before my time, so maybe I'm just clueless, but looking at the videos... I didn't get what was so wonderful about Manley's performance? Didn't she land the same number of triples as Witt? (She has 3Lz, but no jump combo, while Witt at least had 3T-2T). Manley's skate also looks very frenetic and dated, while Witt's still looked like a lovely performance even if it technically was quite meh. Not to mention, Manley won the LP--it just wasn't enough to win overall. If anybody was robbed in the LP, it was Midori Ito.

Maybe Manley's camp was thinking that if she won the freeskate with Ito 2nd and Witt 3rd, she would have won the gold.

But if Ito had won the free with Manley 2nd and Witt 3rd -- likely how those programs would have been judged just a few years later -- the medal placements would have been the same as they actually were. Only Ito would have moved ahead of Trenary for 4th place overall.

There was one costume that got a costume deduction that was not for pieces falling off. A French skater, I believe it was Mae Berenice Meite, got a deduction for a catsuit that exactly matched her skin tone with a few strategically placed gold swirls. It was several years ago.